Realtek 8852BE Wifi6 interface not recognised

[hway212]

Hello there
I have just purchased a mini pc as below.
MeLE-Quieter3C-N5105-8GB-256GB
This works well on Windoze and shows the wifi6 interface as the Realtek 8852BE
Using 5.4.3 (now upgraded to 5.4.5) I found that the wifi interface isn't recognised. I looked to see if I could add this module but it doesn't seem to be there. Looking on the net I believe that it is in the 6.2 and above kernel only.
I was wondering if anybody has the same problem and has managed to solve it.
Chris

[BarryK]

My understanding is that Easy does have to required driver, at:

Code: Select all

/lib/modules/5.15.117/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/realtek/rtw89

The usual first step to troubleshoot is:

Code: Select all

# dmesg > dmesg.log

then open dmesg.log in a text editor and examine the wifi module loading, look for something wrong such as missing firmware.

[hway212]

Hi Barry
Thanks for replying so quickly unfortunatly work got in the way so couldn't reply until now.

In order to be fair I thought that my usb drive had been updated a few times and run mainly on my old machine so wanted to download afresh and try again with a brand new version 5.4.6 on it so have created that this morning to avoid any previous changes causing the problem.

On loading this morning, no WiFi interface.

Ran dmesg.log and searched the result but couldn't find anything related to the wlan only the etho which showed the Realtek r8169.

Don't know if this is significant but in the lib folder found the rtw89 folder and inside it had rtw_8852ae.ko not rtw_8852be.ko . Don't know if the B instead of A is significant.

[BarryK]

Looking at the source for the rtw89, the docs say it covers the 8852BE, or at least that is what it seems to be saying:

https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89

Reading down that page, it says needs firmware, link given to here:

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... tree/rtw89

...ah ha, that's it. Look in /lib/firmware/rtw89, it only has one firmware file.

@hway212 ,
Download those firmware files and report back here, thanks.

[hway212]

Hi Barry
Hopefully I downloaded the firmware files correctly. It wasn't obvious how to do this as when clicking the link it opened a numerical based screen but on clicking on a "plain" link it seemed to download ok.
Put all five files in lib/firmware/rtw89 folder and rebooted.
Unfortunately on reboot no wlan interface is found.

[BarryK]

I see what the problem is. The rtw89 driver is old, only supports the "ae" model.

I have downloaded the latest driver source code, and right now compiling it with the 5.15.120 kernel.
So, this will be in the next release of EasyOS.

[hway212]

Hi Barry
Thank you
It is much appreciated as is all the rest of your work.
Chris

[BarryK]

I have bumped the rtw89 driver, also included the extra firmware, it will be in the next release:

https://bkhome.org/news/202307/gftp-and ... bumps.html

[hway212]

Hi Barry
Updated to 5.4.7 and booted on new mele but unfortunately no WiFi interface
Created a dmesg.log file and found the following 10 lines

[ 36.625651] rtw89core: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
[ 36.639275] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware rtw89/rtw8852b_fw-1.bin
[ 36.639390] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
[ 36.645628] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: Firmware version 0.29.29.1, cmd version 0, type 5
[ 36.645633] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: Firmware version 0.29.29.1, cmd version 0, type 3
[ 36.649683] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: [ERR]pci config read 719
[ 36.649688] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: [ERR] pcie autok fail -22
[ 36.649691] rtw89_8852be 0000:02:00.0: failed to setup chip information
[ 36.650372] rtw89_8852be: probe of 0000:02:00.0 failed with error -22

Hopefully this will tell you what is going wrong.
Thank you for your efforts trying to get this working for me.

[FeodorF]

I have bumped the rtw89 driver, also included the extra firmware, it will be in the next release:

https://bkhome.org/news/202307/gftp-and ... bumps.html

Hi @BarryK,
is this one helpful ?
https://github.com/HRex39/rtl8852be/blob/main/README.md

[BarryK]

I have no idea why it is still failing. I recommend that you raise an issue at the project site:

https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89/issues

...I see that there are already a lot of issues about the "be" variant.

[Federico]

I think that this device is not officially supported on Linux. As you can read here:

https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zo ... e-software

there is only a Windows driver.

Many people have been struggling with it since 2017. Unfortunately, there is not a Linux driver for everything.

However, there exist a Linux driver for it, but no precompiled packages:

https://github.com/lwfinger/rtw89

so it needs to be either compiled and installed or simply added to the kernel, as it is being done, as far as I understood.

However, the driver may be buggy or faulty or not working perfectly by itself. In that case, the only thing one can do is to wait and hope for a new fixed version.

Many people report that secure boot may interfere with driver loading during the boot process. So make sure that secure boot and fast boot options are NOT active in the bios.

[hway212]

Hi there
Thank you all for your help in trying to solve this.

I missed a line odd the dmesg.log extract before those listed above or it was only on the most recent attempt.
rtw89core: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.

The secure boot has always been disabled. Tried the fast boot disabled with same result.
Even tried disabling quiet boot but again the same result but without the line above.

Anyway still doesn't work.

I'm tending to agree I may have to wait a while.

It seems my only special power is choosing hardware with issues on Linux.

Thanks anyway

[BarryK]

I missed a line odd the dmesg.log extract before those listed above or it was only on the most recent attempt.
rtw89core: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.

As far as I know, that report about tainted kernel doesn't actually affect operation of the loaded module.
So it would seem the fault is still somewhere else.
Most likely the "be" variant support is not yet working properly.